The invention disclosed herein pertains to ammunition case reloaders generally but is illustrated and described in reference to a shotgun shell reloader.
There are existing shotgun shell reloaders which position a plurality of circumferentially arranged shells successively with circumferentially arranged tools at individual operating stations where different reloading operations are carried out at the same time on separate shells. The circumferential arrangement of shells is usually raised on a carriage for different ones of the shells to have work done on it with one of the tools at each station. The first operation is to size the shell casing which means that the shell is forced into a die which reforms the brass ring at the head of the shell into perfect circularity and into a diameter appropriate for being received in the magazine of a shotgun. The second operation is to expel the spent primer and the third is to insert a new primer. The fourth operation involves inserting the powder into the shell. The fifth operation involves inserting a wad under slight pressure so it bears on the powder. The sixth operation involves inserting shot into the shell. The seventh, eighth and ninth operations are to partially crimp, finish crimp and eject the shell from the reloading apparatus.
Most shotgun shell reloaders have a plate which is rotatable about a vertical axis and which has recesses at its periphery for accepting the head end of a shell. Because each shell must be presented for being worked on by each of the circularly arranged tools, it is necessary to index the shell support plate rotationally through an angle whose value is equal to 360.degree. divided by the number of shells which are accommodated on the rotary shell support plate. Thus, various mechanisms have been developed for indexing the shell support plate. The indexing mechanism must rotate the shell support plate by one angular step for each movement of the carriage on which the shell plate is mounted toward or away from the circular array of reloading tools. At the end of each reloading step, the indexing mechanism steps back and places itself in readiness for indexing the shell support plate again for the next step.
Prior art indexing mechanisms have been complicated and expensive to build. It is inherent in complicated devices that wear and failures are more likely to occur. The indexing mechanism is an important feature in a shell reloader and a major contributor to the manufacturing cost of the reloader. Hence, it is important to incorporate in the reloader an indexing mechanism which is structurally simple and yet reliable.
More advanced types of shotgun shell reloaders usually have hoppers supported above them for supplying a measured portion of powder and a measured portion of metallic shot to each shell which is undergoing reloading. Some reloaders use a powder bar and a shot bar which shuttle back and forth to pick up a charge of powder, for example, from the hopper in response to the carriage on which the shell plate is mounted being moved in one direction and then moving in the opposite direction to unload the charge of powder into a spout which drops it into the shell in response to the shell support plate being moved in the opposite direction. There are times when the user of the reloader may desire to go through all of the reloading steps with a single shell before putting another shell in the shell plate. On other occasions, an empty shell may be missing from one of the positions on the support plate. Sometimes the reloader may be actuated for demonstration purposes or inadvertently under the circumstances just mentioned whereupon powder can be discharged into the space where no shell is present. The powder or the shot would then spill onto the reloader which is undesirable as is self-evident. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide means for preventing discharge of shot or powder to a station on the rotary shell support plate which contains no empty shell. A mechanism for preventing discharge of powder and shot unless there is a shell in the station on the plate should be simple in the interest of reducing cost and yet it must operate reliably.
Providing for mounting the powder and shot hopper to the reloader and removal of the hopper from the reloader without spilling powder or shot and providing means for allowing the user to perform the mounting and dismounting of the hopper with no danger of spilling powder or shot and without the need for executing any complex manipulations is extremely important.